


Casual

by calswrites



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Friends With Benefits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21852577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calswrites/pseuds/calswrites
Summary: "This makes it so complicated. Who knows what Gil would do if he knew… and JT would tease us endlessly and…” she sighed, trying to compose her thoughts. Malcolm rubbed her knee softly, letting her know that it was alright. “Maybe we… we keep this casual. You know, no strings attached. That way we don’t get hurt.”
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 7
Kudos: 95





	1. Last Night

It started out as a drunken fling. Dani had, against her better judgment, invited Malcolm out to get drinks with her and the rest of the team and that led to them alone in a subway car which led to his lips on hers which led to the two of them, tangled up in the sheets in her apartment, neither one of them knowing what they were doing or wanting it to stop. The next morning was a lot of confusion on both ends. Malcolm woke first and slowly put two and two together. “Shit,” he mumbled under his breath, knowing that this complicated a lot of things. He got up from her bed as quietly as he could and slid on his pair of boxers that had been strewn across the room last night. He tried his best to step lightly to avoid her stirring; she looked so peaceful. He had never seen anyone look that happy.

It was a couple of minutes into him figuring out what to make her for breakfast that Dani awoke. She looked around her room and saw the clothes on her floor, which wasn’t an unnatural sight, but she did a doubletake when she saw a suit that clearly did not belong to her. She quickly turned to make sure that she hadn’t missed anyone besides her and when she saw that she hadn’t, she pulled on a fresh pair of underwear and a shirt and started to make her way to the kitchen. When she saw Malcolm standing with his back turned to her, she couldn’t help but check him out. After she had gotten her eye candy for the day, she cleared her throat to get his attention. He quickly turned around, his eyes looking her up and down before he said anything. “Wow… uh, sorry, hi,” he stuttered.

“Nice to see you too,” she teased, rolling her eyes at him as she made her way over to where he was standing. “Uh, so… last night…” Malcolm waited for her to finish her sentence, knowing it could go one of a thousand ways, but she never did. He nodded a little bit, acknowledging that it was a bit hard to comprehend.

“I, uh, I made breakfast for you,” he said, breaking the small silence that had fallen upon them. He put the plate down in front of her and she smiled.

“You didn’t have to.”

“Uh… I-I think I did,” he said, biting his lip a little bit as he thought about the night they had. “Really, it’s the least I could do.”

She still couldn’t help but stare at him. She studied the definition in his stomach and chest and then made her way up to his eyes. Their gaze shared a hunger that none of them had ever experienced before, and it certainly wasn’t the type that involved food. “Breakfast can wait,” she said softly, pushing the plate away and making her way over to him. He quickly caught on, grabbed her waist, and lifted her up onto the counter. She watched as his eyes traced over every inch of her body and it only made her want him more. 

Dani leaned in to kiss him, but before she reached his lips, he pulled away slightly. “Should we, uh… talk about this? I mean this is… this is…”

“I don’t care about any of that,” she whispered, running her fingers over his scruff. “I just really need you to kiss me right now.” He happily obliged and they fell into a quite familiar rhythm. When they were both out of breath from wrapping up their second go of things, they knew that they had to address the elephant in the room. “Look, uh… why don’t we go get cleaned up and then we can, uh, talk about… whatever this is,” Dani said, running her fingers through her hair. 

“Sounds good. Mind if I run home and grab some things and, uh, take… you know, my medicines?” he said, a bit embarrassed that if he asked, she would get freaked out and not want him to come back.

She smiled at him and nodded. “Of course, you do whatever you need to do. I’ll text you my address and we can… figure out what to do from there.” He gave her one more kiss before he got ready to head back to his place. While he was on the train back home, he thought about where it could go from here. He truly felt something for and with Dani that he hadn’t felt in his lifetime and he didn’t want to lose that. However, he also knew his history with relationships and none of them had ever ended well for either party and he didn’t want to expose her to that.

“Oh, God, what did I get myself into,” Dani mumbled to herself as she stepped under the warm water of her shower head. She was conflicted in so many ways. She knew that they had made their friendship complicated. Hell, she didn’t even know if she could call it a friendship anymore. She also knew that he made her happy and she hoped that she did the same to him.

About a half an hour had passed before Dani heard a knock on her door. “It’s open!” she called from her bathroom, still finishing up getting ready. Malcolm pushed open her apartment door slowly and closed it even slower behind him. They both had quite a bit of time to assess things, but he didn’t know if they were on the same page with where they wanted things to go. He chose a spot on her couch and sat down with his legs crossed until she came out. His attention turned to her when he heard the door open and saw her step out of the bathroom. “I’m… uh, I’m glad you came back,” she said as she walked over to where he was sitting. She cupped his face lightly and kissed him as she sat down next to him.

“So…” he said, knowing that it was probably better to address it than leave it awkwardly hanging over their heads. “Last night was, uh…”

“Not something I regret,” she finished, letting her hands rest in her lap. He nodded in agreement and let her continue. “I just… this makes it so complicated. Who knows what Gil would do if he knew… and JT would tease us endlessly and…” she sighed, trying to compose her thoughts. Malcolm rubbed her knee softly, letting her know that it was alright. “Maybe we… we keep this casual. You know, no strings attached. That way we don’t get hurt.”

It wasn’t exactly what Malcolm wanted to hear, but if it made her happy, he could live with it. “Yeah… yeah. I, uh, I think that sounds like a good plan.” It wasn’t what Dani had planned either, but she figured that it was a bit too early into whatever relationship they had to admit that she had caught feelings pretty hard for him. This way, she could still be with him without risking the heartbreak that was bound to come with a formal relationship.


	2. Make Outs and Stakeouts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Stakeouts before make outs? That’s low,” he teased, hoping it would make her smile. Even if he couldn’t see it, it would give him a small piece of mind knowing it did. He could hear her try to suppress a small laugh and his heart swelled picturing her. “Do you…” he trailed off, not knowing if it was the right thing to ask.
> 
> “Do I what?”
> 
> “Well, I don’t know. Do you think that I could, like, join you?”
> 
> “Join me? You would sit in a parked car in a ridiculously suburban neighborhood for hours on end with me?” There was supposed to be a bit of a joking tone to her voice, but she said it so sincerely that Bright hardly noticed.

It had been a couple of days since Bright and Dani had seen each other in a non-professional setting. They had set up a fairly elaborate plan to keep people’s suspicion of them under wraps and to stop things from getting too complicated. They would see each other twice a week, alternating whose house they would go to, and then in the morning, they would stagger their arrival to work and act like nothing had happened the night before.

This night was supposed to be nothing out of their routine. They had left the precinct at different times, and a couple of hours later, Dani would be knocking on Bright’s door. But instead, Bright had been staring at his clock for twelve minutes. She was never late. Always a minute early or right on time. Never late. He had never been stood up before. He honestly didn’t even know if he was being stood up.

He contemplated calling her, but he didn’t know if that would come off as being clingy. Were people clingy in a ‘no strings’ relationship? He had only had one other relationship before Dani and the second they had learned that his father was a serial killer, he never heard from them again. Bright swore off of dating at that point, insisting that it was just better for him to be on his own. Dani made him rethink that choice.

He decided to call her. Even if it was just a casual relationship, he still cared about her and could sense that something was off.

She picked up on the first ring. “Bright, I’m so sorry—”

“It’s okay. I’m just,” he sighed, pushing all of his darkest thoughts to the back of his mind, “glad to hear your voice.”

He heard her pause and a small breath come out on her end. “Right, right. Gil put me on neighborhood watch. Something came up and I was stupid enough to say yes. I’m so sorry.”

“Stakeouts before make outs? That’s low,” he teased, hoping it would make her smile. Even if he couldn’t see it, it would give him a small piece of mind knowing it did. He could hear her try to suppress a small laugh and his heart swelled picturing her. “Do you…” he trailed off, not knowing if it was the right thing to ask.

“Do I what?”

“Well, I don’t know. Do you think that I could, like, join you?”

“Join me? You would sit in a parked car in a ridiculously suburban neighborhood for hours on end with me?” There was supposed to be a bit of a joking tone to her voice, but she said it so sincerely that Bright hardly noticed.

“Of course, I would.” He paused, thinking that he might’ve just gotten too close to what a formal relationship would be like. “I mean… I don’t, I don’t know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I’d like that. I’d like that a lot, actually,” she said, smiling on the other end of the line, not caring how wide she did because she knew that no one could see her. “I’ll text you my location and you can get an Uber or something?”

“That sounds great!” Malcolm sprang up from his couch and rushed to get his shoes and coat while still on the phone with her. “I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon, Bright.”

Once she hung up and texted him the address she was at, Malcolm went to order himself an Uber. After he did, he paused, wondering if this counted as a date. He decided that if it was, or even if it wasn’t, he wanted to do something nice for her.

Dani’s phone buzzed a couple of seconds after she had put it back into her jacket pocket. It was Bright. Making a small stop, but I’ll be there soon. She wondered what he could be making a stop for, but at this point, she’s learned it’s better to let him do things first and ask questions later.

After Bright had stopped at a coffee shop and two convenience stores since the first one didn’t have the brand of lollipops that he preferred, he juggled holding two cups of Earl Grey tea and trying to sort out two flavors from all the rest. It wasn’t going too well, to say the least. He learned a couple of tea spills into the short drive that it wasn’t going to work out, so he decided that he would sort them out when he got into the stationary car with Dani.

“Uh, you can just pull over here and drop me off,” he said once the black sedan of hers came into view. He got out, holding the two bags of lollipops underneath each of his arms and the two cups in his hands. He stood outside of the passenger side door for a couple of seconds, wondering how in God’s name he was going to get the door open.

He ended up awkwardly leaning down to hit the window with his elbow twice, efficiently scaring the shit out of Dani. “Jesus, Bright,” he heard her mumble through the soundproofing of the car. She leaned over and opened the passenger door from the inside. “What are you—”

He slid into the car and let the two bags of lollipops drop from underneath his arms. “Okay, so I couldn’t sort everything in the Uber because, you know,” he lifted the two cups of tea before setting them down into the car’s cupholders and then finally closing the car door. “But,” he began to open the bags and sort out the flavors that he had failed to in the Uber. He would hand her every lemon-lime he got and keep every grape, discarding all the rest onto the floor of the car.

By this point, Dani was speechless. Her face softened into a bit of a frown, almost getting emotional at the amount of effort he had put into making her happy. “Bright…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pick all the others up,” he said, not even lifting his head. She tapped his thigh lightly. “Wh… are you crying? Oh my, did I do something wrong? See, I’m not one for this, like, relationship thing – not, not that this is a relationship, because, you know, i-it’s not. Well, not unless you want it to be, because I’d happily—”

She gently pressed her finger against his lips to get him to stop rambling. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do any of this.”

“I, I didn’t?” he asked, his lips moving against her finger that was still there at the time.

“No… but I’m really glad you did.” She removed her finger from his lips and instead ran her fingers through his hair, pushing it back for him. He smiled a little bit, both from her compliment and the gesture. “Cheers.” She lifted one of the cups of tea towards him.

He picked up the other cup but hesitated. “To what?”

Dani scrunched her nose up slightly as she thought. “To make outs and stakeouts.”

“Oh?”

“Don’t get your hopes up. We have all these lollipops to get through.” His face fell ever so slightly. “I’m just teasing you,” she added as she clinked their Styrofoam cups together.

For a while, they just sat and drank their tea, mostly because it was best when it was hot. But occasionally one of them would strike up a conversation and when it ended, they would go back to drinking their tea. It was never an awkward silence between them, but more time for them to just enjoy each other’s presence without words.

Bright was the first to finish his tea and move on to his first lollipop of the night. “Grape, really?”

“What’s wrong with grape?” He pouted slightly as he stuck the candy in his mouth.

“Oh, Bright, it’s literally the worst flavor… like, ever.”

“Hey!” He feigned that he was hurt, but deep down he knew that it was kind of true. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the artificial tasting lollipop that he continued to suck on.

They sat in the quiet for a little bit longer as Dani finished the remainder of her tea. Once she was done, she reached into the backseat of her car for a plastic bag for them to use as a makeshift trash bag. She threw both of their cups and the wrapper for Malcolm’s lollipop away before she opened her first candy of the night and threw that wrapper out too.

“How have your night terrors been? You look… you know,” she didn’t want to say ‘better’, because, to her, he always looked way beyond average, “more well-rested, I guess? And, you know, wh-when I’ve been over you’ve never, uh…” she drifted off, finding it harder to compile the words than she thought it would be.

“They’ve been… okay,” he shrugged. “They’re not great, but they’re also not as bad as they have been, so I guess I have to be grateful for that.” He twirled the stick of the lollipop that he had just finished in between his thumb and middle finger, not looking at her. “Having you helps,” he added quietly.

Dani reached over to let her hand rest on his thigh. “You’ve always got me, Bright.”

Malcolm let his lollipop stick drop, finding it unimportant compared to her. He tucked one of her curls behind her ear before letting his hand rest on her cheek. Sensing where this was headed, Dani leaned over the center console to gently connect their lips. It was a feeling that they had gotten used to in the past couple of weeks, but never got tired of.

They both pulled away briefly to take a breath. Dani asked the question that both of them were thinking. “You want to…?” Bright nodded, smiling a bit before reaching his arm out for her to use to stabilize herself as she climbed over the center console to straddle him in the passenger seat.

He reached under her shirt to lift it, but as his hands made contact with her stomach, she curved her back slightly. He paused. “What, are you ticklish or something?” he teased. She rolled her eyes, something she would do when she didn’t want to admit that he was right. “No way. The Dani Powell is ticklish?”

“Shut up.” She lightly hit his arm. “If you tell anyone, I will shoot you.”

“How would I even bring this up? ‘Oh, yeah, when Dani and I were having sex in her car when she was supposed to be on a stakeout, I found out that she’s ticklish’?” He placed a kiss against her jaw, making her giggle.

“You’ve got a good point… but, for real…”

“I won’t mention it.” He started making his way down her neck as she smiled, knowing that she could trust him with even the smallest thing.

Once they were done doing what they had become known for, Dani reluctantly climbed back into the driver’s seat. She wanted to stay in Bright’s arms forever, just taking in his familiar scent and feeling safe. They both started to regret not having a second dose of caffeine to keep them awake for the rest of the night.

Bright could sense the shared drowsiness between them and reached into the lollipop bag by his feet. “Lemon-lime?” he offered.

Dani couldn’t resist a smile as she took the candy from his hands. “My favorite.” She tossed the wrapper into their makeshift trash bag, reminding Bright to pick up the stick that he had dropped earlier and toss it away.

They sat in silence for a while, enjoying each other’s presence and getting lost in their respective thoughts. Dani had her right forearm resting on the center console while she held her phone in the other hand, scrolling mindlessly through Instagram. Bright didn’t know exactly what to do, but he decided that his instincts hadn’t failed him thus far, so he decided to thread his fingers in between hers. It was something they’d never done in all the times they had been together, but her first reaction was to let her hand relax in his as they fit almost too perfectly.

She looked up from her phone to him, a lollipop stick still hanging from the left side of her mouth. “What are you…”

“Is this okay?”

“Y-Yeah, it’s, it’s more than okay,” she said, her eyes switching constantly between their hands and his eyes.

“Okay.” He smiled a little bit and leaned back in his seat.

Dani opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, wanting to say something, but not knowing what. She felt her stomach tense up, not thinking much of it until she turned back to her phone and realized she was falling for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all... I really have a love/hate relationship with this chapter. First off, I'm so insanely sorry that it's so late after the first one, but shit got kind of crazy. Secondly, I don't even know if I'm really happy with this, but I just feel so bad, so I wanted to get something out for you guys. So, yeah.


	3. The Way Things Were

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At this point, he was wondering if it would be better to go back to the way things were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all i'm so sorry that this is legit, like, a year later... but better late than never? anyways, i hope you guys like this chapter. hopefully i'll be writing more, but i'm honestly not sure. thank y'all for all the support though! <3

Dani and Bright returned to their routine, neither one of them wanting anything to be too out of the ordinary to the point where it would become suspicious to others. However, they were acting like a couple without putting the label to it. Whenever they didn’t spend the night at each other’s house, which wasn’t all that often, Bright would stop at his favorite café to get them both a cup of earl grey to start off their day.

When they did spend the night together, they would also drive to work together. Either Bright would have a driver drive them since he wasn’t allowed to drive with all the medications he was on or Dani would drive them. When they got to the 16th precinct, the one who didn’t drive would take a lap around the block to stagger their arrival times. They had everything meticulously planned out.

That all went south when Jessica Whitly decided to stop by her son’s apartment one morning. It was something that would be considered normal to most people, but to Dani and Bright, it was terrifying.

Bright had his hand in the back pocket of Dani’s jeans as they walked out of his apartment building. In front of them was his mom, leaning against the backseat door of his driver’s car. “Malcolm,” she said. At first, she only saw her son. Then she saw the detective accompanying him. “Detective Powell… what a surprise.” Bright’s eyes widened and he quickly removed his hand. Both of them took a step away from each other.

“Mother, what are you doing here?”

“How funny, I was just about to ask that question.” She directed her attention to the woman standing awkwardly beside her son. Dani refused to make eye contact, swallowing hard as she twisted the gold ring on her middle finger.

“Mother,” he said sternly, noticing her obvious uncomfortableness.

“I just wanted to drop this off for you.” Jessica handed him a small box. “I was cleaning out the attic and figured you might want it.”

Bright eyed the box suspiciously before taking it. “Uh, thank you…” He got the sense that there was more that she wanted to talk about.

“Ms. Powell, would you excuse us for a minute?” Bright’s mother scanned her eyes over the woman that her son had proudly walked out of his apartment with. She had never seen him so happy before, but she was hesitant.

“Y-Yeah, of course. I should be going anyways.” Dani raised her head a little bit, but not enough to make eye contact with her. “I’ll, uh, I’ll see you later. Nice to see you, Mrs. Whitly.” Dani looked up to smile slightly at Bright before walking quickly past his mother.

Both of the Whitlys watched as she turned the corner, with Jessica turning back to her son first. “Anything you want to tell me, Malcolm?”

“Mother, she’s just… a friend.” Bright knew that he and Dani had made a promise to keep things quiet between them and casual.

“Friends don’t look at each other like that, darling.”

“Stop. Please… stop,” he sighed. “I don’t know what we are, but it’s, uh, it’s really nothing.” He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. “I have to go. Thank you for… this.” He held up the box slightly as an indication before walking past Jessica to head the same way Dani did just a minute ago.

* * *

Bright walked into the 16th precinct, heading almost immediately for Dani’s desk with a cup of tea that he’d picked up for her on the way there. “Hey, Dan, I’m really sorry about my mother, she--”

“It’s fine,” she interrupted him, continuing with the report she was writing.

“Well, uh, okay, I brought you some tea as an apolo--”

“Bright, it’s fine.” She pushed her chair back from her desk slightly to look up at him. “Thank you for the gesture, but…” she held up her own cup that she had gotten earlier.

He laughed slightly out of nervousness, trying to read her body language. “Right, right.”

“Can we talk later?”

“Later? Later, yeah, of course.” Any hint of a smile that he had on before disappeared. His hand that was holding the warm cup dropped to his side. “I’ll, uh, talk to you later.” He waited a couple of seconds before turning around to head to his temporary desk outside of Gil’s office. He dropped the cup into his trashcan. He didn’t really like earl grey, but he drank it for her, because it was something that they did together before they decided to complicate things. At this point, he was wondering if it would be better to go back to the way things were.

* * *

It was a semi-quiet day at the precinct. It left Bright with a lot of time to think and speculate as to how much later “later” meant. When he saw Dani packing up her things to head home for the day, he decided to pack up his things as well and try to talk to her.

“Hey, Dani, wait up,” he called, sliding his arm into his suit jacket as he practically chased after her. She turned around to see him just in time to hold the elevator door. He slid in next to her and watched as the doors closed fully before saying anything further. “Look, I’m really sorry about my mom, she’s just--”

“It’s not that, Bright. I mean, it is, but it’s not,” she said, twirling the gold ring on her finger anxiously.

“What do you mean?” he lowered his voice slightly, worried for what was coming next.

“I’m scared.” She ran her fingers gently through her hair as she raised her head. “I think… I don’t know what I think.” Her hands dropped and she sighed.

“Hey, i-it’s okay, you can tell me.” Malcolm reached out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I won’t judge you, you know that, D.”

“Do you, do you think that we’re getting to close?”

“Too close? How do you mean?”

“Just,” she took a deep breath to compose herself, “the thing with your mom this morning… what if that happens again? I was thinking that it might be good for us if, you know if we… take a break.”

“A break?” His smile faltered slightly, but he wanted what was best for her, even if it hurt him. “O-Okay, uh, sure. Let’s take… a break.”

The elevator doors opened, but both of them didn’t really want to leave the privacy of the small space. Dani stepped out first and then waited for Bright to. “I’m really sorry if I led you on in some way or… anything.”

“No, no, you didn’t. We both wanted to keep things casual and we should. It’s simple.”

She smiled at him slightly although she could feel her heart being pulled out of her chest. It wasn’t what she wanted at all, but she didn’t want to get hurt again. “Thank you.”

“Anytime. If you need me, you know where to find me and how to reach me.”

They walked out together as friends and nothing more, but when they went their separate ways, something changed in them. Dani got into a taxi to take her home and it took everything in her to not breakdown in the backseat of some stranger’s car. Bright felt empty, numb even. While the two were having very different experiences, they were in agreement on one thing: this was much more than just a casual relationship.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! So, hopefully, this is going to be the beginning of a small series. I really loved the idea of Brightwell being friends with benefits and then I kinda ran with that idea, so I hope you guys are as into this as I am because it's highkey the only thing keeping me going during hiatus. Anyways, love y'all & thanks for reading and supporting me and all that jazz <3


End file.
